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sciencehabit writes "Spinal cord injuries cause paralysis because they sever crucial communication links between the brain and the muscles that move limbs. A new study with monkeys demonstrates a way to re-establish those connections. By implanting electrodes in a movement control center in the brain and wiring them up to electrodes attached to muscles in the arm, researchers restored movement to monkeys with a temporarily paralyzed hand. The work is the latest promising development in the burgeoning field of neuroprosthetics."

I propose we investigate who would win in a fight between these monkeys and their cyborg brethren. [bbc.co.uk]

It may seem gratuitous, but think of how this could benefit all the disabled people who in the future will face the tough decision of whether to fight off the encroaching zombie hordes with a biological arm from the flesh vats, or with a prosthetic chainsaw.

Well, he's not functioning the way he normally does. He seems depressed. He's lost his appetite.
He's even curtailed his autoerotic activities.
And we think this is directly related to the laptop with you the other day.
So, so what do you want me to do?
Well, frankly we'd like you to run some AV.
Yeah, well he hacked me.
Mr. K, he is an innocent primate.

"I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you
But I get the feeling that you don't like it, what's with all the screaming?
You like monkeys, you like ponies, maybe you don't like monsters so much
Maybe I used too many monkeys
Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?""

So we find you can control limbs with wires. How long until we control limbs that are wireless? Can a man control 8 robotic arms and be like Dr. Octopus? Can we hook electrodes to our brain, wifi to it, and wifi to a monkey, then we can control a monkey with our minds? All Twilight Zone plot lines aside, this research is really awesome. It gives hope to everyone paralyzed that they'll be able to regain movement again. This is the stuff that money should be thrown at hand over fist.

I know this is slashdot, but you could at least read the article before the knee-jerk response kicks in.

To test this idea, the researchers injected a nerve-blocking drug to temporarily paralyze one hand and forearm in the monkeys.

They used a drug to temporarily paralyze the hand. They didn't break its spine, they didn't kill it. There was probably a tiny bit of pain and fear, no different from vaccinating a child. Please try to keep things in context.